Briefly: What an amazing world we live in.

I remember being little and hearing about the great video game crash of the 1980′s, complete with plenty of rumours that hundreds of thousands of copies of the game that caused it, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, were written off, crushed, and buried in a New Mexico landfill.

Turns out that the rumours were true, and earlier this year, Microsoft dug them up.

Why Microsoft? Well, they’re prepping a lot of cool sounding original content for the Xbox platform, including a documentary about the video game crash entitled Atari: Game Over. The documentary will premiere exclusively on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One this Fall.

The first trailer gives some amazing insight into what happened, and we are so excited to hear more. I haven’t powered on my Xbox One in a few months now, but this documentary will certainly get it warmed up again before Halo: The Master Chief Collection launches this November. Take a look at the trailer below, and let us know what you think!

http://youtu.be/rIaWAyHIqok

Briefly: What an amazing world we live in.

I remember being little and hearing about the great video game crash of the 1980’s, complete with plenty of rumours that hundreds of thousands of copies of the game that caused it, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, were written off, crushed, and buried in a New Mexico landfill.

Turns out that the rumours were true, and Microsoft just dug them up.

Why Microsoft? Well, they’re prepping a lot of cool sounding original content for the Xbox platform, including a documentary about the video game crash entitled Atari: Game Over. The documentary will premiere exclusively on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One later this year.

Xbox Wire has posted some photos of the dig, and notes that “the findings started out very promising, with an old, dusty Atari 2600 joystick buried in the landfill. Then an “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” cartridge. A box. An instruction manual. And the confirmation of “a lot more down there.”

Amazing, right?

Take a look at the photo below, and we’ll be sure to keep you up to date as we learn more. Did you have a copy of E.T. back in the day, or were you smart enough to avoid it? Sound out below!

Atari Dig_Evidence

Atari Dig_Jonathan

Atari Dig_Zak

It’s time to pull out the ol’ Atari 2600 in memorium, as it could soon be lights out for the house that PONG built.

 

Both the US and French divisions of the once prominent company have entered bankruptcy protection after main shareholder BlueBay couldn’t find a buyer for the struggling developer. Atari’s company’s current assets are set to be auctioned off before a credit facility is due on March 31st.

 

It’s crazy to think that how far this company has fallen since its inception and insane growth through the 70’s and 80’s. Things turned very sour for them in 1984, when the Atari 2600 cartridge E.T. was released… and was one of the worst things ever. The video game market crashed shortly afterwards, and the company arguable hasn’t had a real hit since.

 

Hopefully things turn around for them, for as tarnished as the company’s reputation and resources may be, it would be sad to see them gone completely. Current CEO Jim Wilson stated that by auctioning off current assets, “we will seek to maximize the proceeds in the best interest of the company and all of its shareholders.” Hopefully the name will live to see another day.

 

In any case, things aren’t sounding good.

 

E.T.1

 

Source: Deadline